Dizzy was probably the first video game franchise(not that I would have used that term back then)I fell in love with. My particular favourite was Treasure Island Dizzy. My dreams are still haunted by dropping the damn snorkel whilst underwater.

Ocean were a huge player up to the 16 bit era. They were one of the first software companies to realise the potential of licensed games. They scored big with RoboCop and Batman the Movie especially. Sadly they were absorbed by Infogrames, who dumped the Ocean brand and rebranded as Atari before all but going bankrupt.

As for that Batman game, It's utterly brilliant just like John Ritman's other isometric classic, Head Over Heals.

I'm trying to think who's still around from the 8/16 bit era. There is Code Masters, Rare (who were Ultimate Play the Game), Team 17.

Psygnosis were a studio/publisher I loved, they often had amazing box art from Roger Dean. They became famous for the Wipeout series, being rebranded as Sony Liverpool and sadly shut down a few years ago.

Then there was DMA Design, famous for the Lemmings games. They would go on create a little known series called Grand Theft Auto.

I'll state one thing (even though it's an apple and oranges thing), I do love the simplicity and accessibility of classic games.

Some modern games are great - I love GTA V - but when you play them, you have to put a catheter in and shut yourself away for days. ;-) At least with older games, you could dip in and out for an hour or two.

I really appreciate Nintendo's design on Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odyssey, massive games with a huge amount of content but done in a way that you can dip in and out or have a marathon session but feeling like you're being rewarded whichever way you choose.

Sure, I like it with GTA V or other things, but I just want to dip in at times. I don't want to have to devote weeks to progressing through a game.

It's not short-attention span, I promise. I do enjoy GTA V. And obviously, one can save games. But it's about commitment. Sometimes I may want to play "dip in and out" games, not commit to a game that, if I want to complete it, will take up a lot of my life.

Picked up the February 1992 issue of AMIGA FORMAT via eBay. There's a news piece about the 3 millionth Amiga being sold. And the article stated this:

QUOTE:

In America, the Amiga is seen primarily as a creative tool for video, multimedia and graphics work, and in Germany, which has around 700,000 Amiga owners, it's also taken very seriously. The vibrancy of the UK Amiga market is probably accounted for by the fact that it's seen primarily as a games machine over here.

It was, although it didn't feel like it at times. In the publications I was reading, and during certain discussions, it seemed like the "poor cousin" of similar consoles. I find that sad because I enjoyed what it had to offer.

The Master System was very popular in Europe but nothing compared to Brasil, where it was still being manufactured under licence until recently.

It also had a bit more under the hood than the NES, but Nintendo's strict third party policies (which they were able to enforce due to controlling about 90% of the market at the time) meant SEGA had to almost singlehandedly provide the software support for it.

Ultimately though I think the NES had a much better library as you had Nintendo's own support along with many heavyweights like Capcom, Konami, Namco, Tecmo, Sunsoft, Enix, Square and the vast bulk of Japanese game developers.

You're full of facts with regards to retro games, Richard (thanks!), I've definitely learnt a lot since we started this discussion. It's interesting that Brazil was still manufacturing it under licence until recently.

That's courtesy of a misspent youth Robbie, that's lasted well into adulthood!

One surprise I had years after its heyday, was discovering that the Mega Drive was a complete flop in Japan. Growing up in the era where the Mega Drive/Genesis went toe to toe with the SNES (pretty sure SEGA were top again in the UK) in Europe and the US, it was odd to discover the machine was a distant third in its native country to the SNES and the PC Engine (Turbo Grafx in the US).

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